This has probably been discussed before... but how many of you use FSM to come out to your family as an atheist/agnostic or whatever?

I thought it would be funny to tell my parents/sibs (all christians, some fundamentalist types) that I have finally found a church to belong to... their hearts would probably leap with joy that I've returned, the prodigal daughter. pause ...wait for it ... what church? say you? ... the Church of the Flying Spahgetti Monster!

oh, the look on their faces.

but I won't be seeing them anytime soon in person. so there goes that thought!

My entire family has me pegged as a complete lunatic anyhow. Moved to the woods, animal rescue, no kids, the whole not-in-line-with-normality thing. They know I'm into the FSM, but they really have no idea what it's all about. Screw 'em.

"Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens."("Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.")-- Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805)Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.-- Philip K DickOK, now let's look at four dimensions on the blackboard.-- Dr. JoyEnglish isn't much of a language for swearing. When I studied Ancient Greek I was delighted to discover a single word - Rhaphanidosthai - which translates roughly as "Be thou thrust up the fundament with a radish for adultery."

It all depends on the family. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if someone had issues because their family was atheist, and yet they determined themselves to be Christian, or some other religion. Sort of like children of gay parents who have to come out to their parents as straight (I've heard of it happening, and that the parents are apparently disappointed, at least at first).

People (read: Parents) are strange things.

daftbeaker wrote:But if I stop bugging you I'll have to go back to arguing with Qwerty about whether beauty is truth and precisely what we both mean by 'purple'

Any statistical increase in the usage of the emoticon since becoming Admin should not be considered significant, meaningful, or otherwise cause for worry.

"Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens."("Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.")-- Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805)Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.-- Philip K DickOK, now let's look at four dimensions on the blackboard.-- Dr. JoyEnglish isn't much of a language for swearing. When I studied Ancient Greek I was delighted to discover a single word - Rhaphanidosthai - which translates roughly as "Be thou thrust up the fundament with a radish for adultery."

I don't remember a thread specifically on dog tags, but several members have served in various military branches. (Keep posting around the board in topics that interest you and you'll find the active ones.) You could put something in your sig line. You could also start your own thread, in this section or in Games.

I will honor Monkey in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.~Charles "Darwin" Dickens

I have been "out" as an atheist for close to twenty years now (well, maybe closer to fifteen - I can't remember). My parents still give me trouble over it, despite the fact that my father is a deist and my mother is "spiritual but not religious." This only got worse once my son was born - not only was I having arguments with his mother's family about not having him baptized (which we did not) or circumsized (which we did not), but the incessant calls to take him to church are a bit wearing.

"You bypassed the Maginot line of logic and rationality and annexed the Sudetenland of irrational comparisons!"-Unattrib

"We live in a world where John Lennon was murdered, yet Barry Manilow continues to put out fucking albums. God-dammit! If you're gonna kill somebody, have some fucking taste. I'll drive you to Kenny Rogers' house."-Bill Hicks

Brall wrote:on that note, if anyone knows of some good threads that discuss military dog tags and wouldn't mind messaging or posting the links to them, please do. i'm new to this site and i've found very quickly that the search feature produces few results because most words produce too many results.

If I remember correctly, LibraLabRat managed to get Pastafarianism as his religion on his dog tags. He hasn't been around for a while, but look him up in the member index and you can sniff around in his posts.

Of course, I might have hallucinated the whole thing ... but that's always a possibility no matter what I'm talking about.

"Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens."("Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.")-- Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805)Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.-- Philip K DickOK, now let's look at four dimensions on the blackboard.-- Dr. JoyEnglish isn't much of a language for swearing. When I studied Ancient Greek I was delighted to discover a single word - Rhaphanidosthai - which translates roughly as "Be thou thrust up the fundament with a radish for adultery."

I was the first in my family to choose not to be confirmed as a Catholic. That's immediate and extended family. As far as I know, none of my cousins have abstained, but there's 50+ of them, so I might be mistaken. So I suppose they all just assume I'm agnostic or atheist or just some very poor Catholic.

But I did just recently come out to my father as a Pastafarian. And this wasn't as a means of coming out as an atheist or agnostic. I came out as a Pastafarian to him to be out as a Pastafarian.

It went quite well, truth be told. He's very understanding. He even suggested that late president Teddy Roosevelt may have been a closeted Pastafarian. I mean, just look at some of the things he did. Great White Fleet? Very piratey.